One of the best ways of keeping your van insurance premium at an affordable rate is by keeping hold of your no claims bonus. If you’re a van driver, the good news is that you are statistically more likely to do this, as commercial vehicle drivers make far fewer claims on their insurance than others covered on UK roads.

As a van driver you are afforded a more receptive experience dealing with insurance brokers than those in the domestic market for several reasons. In the main, by buying a van in the first instance, an insurance broker may assume that you have made a considered purchase and not simply that you’ve bought a set of wheels because all of your mates are driving. You have made a decision that affects your entire livelihood and your van insurance company will respect that decision.

But more than that, if driving is your livelihood and you’re not a tradesman who uses his van to transport his tools and enable him to work on site, it is very liable that you have racked up experience in a few years that domestic drivers may never do. There is also the very real possibility that the company for whom you’re working has put you through advanced driver training to meet their own organisational goals, therefore even more in line for cheap van insurance quotes.

There are two ways that you can protect your current no claims bonus (PNCB) and your subsequent van insurance premium. The first is, if you’ve built up enough of a history of claim-free driving, you can pay an ancillary premium on top of your base van insurance policy. The cost will depend upon how many years you are claim free and the value of the bonus you are trying to protect.

The second way is, quite obviously, by not claiming against your van insurance. Using your experience to steer clear of incidents on the road and protect your van from theft will certainly help deliver the savings you’re looking for. This service, being discounted for full years of claim free driving, can roll over for up to nine years, where it will remain at the maximum discount until you make a claim, which you will not have to if you take out PNCB, as per option one.

The ulterior motive for offering discount in this manner for your van insurance provider is retention of your business. Many insurance firms will offer you an introductory discount equivalent to any no claims up to a point, but nine years continual discount is a lot to compete against. Hence, it’s win-win: you only pay for the cheap van insurance you deserve; they retain your business as you may struggle to find cheaper van cover anywhere else.

It’s not impossible, though; see if you could save using your no claims on your next van insurance quote from over 60 brokers and direct insurers using our bespoke online form.

The UK’s freight haulage industry has well and truly accepted the gauntlet, by all accounts, as it strives to reduce CO2 emission levels by eight percent in the next four years. Following publication of the second yearly analysis report, the sector are bang on target to achieve their aim showing a 2.6% reduction after the two years to date, with almost four full years remaining until the end of 2015, when the figure has to be realised.

It is imperative that haulage companies do not rest on these laurels and that the reduction retains impetus, which it shows signs of doing as more and more industries of all sizes pledge their support to reducing emission levels.

As more businesses address their own fleets of van, box vans and larger commercial vehicles’ carbon footprints they are realising that steps in this direction not only help save the environment but can actually help towards their own ongoing cost savings. Van insurance brokers are re-evaluating their approaches to fleet cover, often offering cheaper alternatives if you’re showing your business is capable of turning the green corner. Initial indications are that the cleaner the emissions are the more efficient the components under the hood have to be to deliver. Therefore there is less opportunity of off-road time in garages for reparation and engine failure whilst on the road leadning to less breakdown time and a reduced propensity for accidents derived from component malfunction.

Not only that, but more efficient engines are leading to smaller cubic capacity requirements as demonstrated by the new Transit which, for its leaner, greener range it has dropped the option of 2.4l, now offering a 2.2l version only. It goes without saying that the smaller the engine the greater the opportunity of finding a cheap van insurance quote online.

This sentiment was backed up by Simon Chapman, chief economist of the Freight Transport Association. He commented that, as SMEs from the haulage sector improve their output through the technology on offer and better planning, they are discovering these cost savings in other areas of their business.

To see how much your van insurance could benefit from going greener, compare over 60 insurance companies using our online form

One of the key factors to saving money on your van insurance is actually getting the right van for the job in the first place. Many companies and individuals simply do not do enough research into what their businesses need from their commercial vehicle fleet and throw huge wads of money at vans that, for their collection and delivery needs at least, do not do the investment justice.

In the main, this is where the belief that ‘bigger is better‘ overrides any commercially derived decision when deciding on such an investment. Either that or businesses that have been established a while with similar customer bases buy like-for-like before assessing whether either their or their customers’ businesses have changed in a manner that would allow for smaller vans to otherwise suffice.

And I do not just refer to the outlay for the fleet in the first instance. There is the ongoing cost of fuel and van insurance which continually demand more from your budget than smaller capacity vans, both in volume for carriage and payload and the engines under the hood.

This is never more true than in the world of distribution, especially where companies have been drawn into the automotive sector because of the proficiency in supplying in other areas. A prime example is when I used to work in the fastener and associated product industry and we were very good at we did.

So much so that, where we were supplying large items such as cable tray for electrical enclosures or stanchions for stair lifts we were asked to supply the smaller, bespoke components that were designed specifically for the applications and were difficult to get hold of in small volumes at reasonable prices and lead times in the UK.

Not to go into too much detail as this is not business blog but about finding cheap van insurance, but, because of how lucrative supplying these smaller components were our business dynamic shifted. Not so much a conscious decision but, within any industry where you supply exceptional service, you soon attract a reputation, which is your marketing dealt with, if nothing else – you can’t beat recommendation as a tool to promote your service or product.

One aspect of our business that never changed, even long after the large components had been ditched and we were all about small, special screws, was the fleet of vans. We still kept buying the ‘good old Transit‘ and, nine times out of ten, they’d go out with components that you could have put on the passenger seat of Berlingo or some other city- or mini-van.

Because of how lucrative our business was on paper, the question of the size of the fleet, their capacities, the extra fuel and over-the-odds van insurance premiums we were paying not only didn’t get addressed but never even get posed.

When you’re making deliveries to line-side two and three times a day to facilitate a just-in-time system or the like, those savings can really start to stack up. The added fuel, wear and tear and the mileage – van insurance providers take your miles into account, too; the more miles your van travels, the higher the propensity of an accident (therefore the higher the risk) and accompanying van insurance quote.

So, when next you consider the purchase of your new fleet, ask yourself if your business model or direction has changed – you could make your business even more profitable, simply by downsizing your vans to suit your service.

[…] from pt 1

The key to keeping a clean license is having a clear head on your shoulders at all times. Refrain from flipping other drivers the bird – besides the obvious ill intent, they may be bigger than you when they get out of their car!

When setting out on a potentially long day behind the wheel, remember to double check two things. Firstly, are there going to be any hold-ups along the way which may induce frustration? If so, and if convenient, do your best to circumnavigate them

And secondly, set off in plenty of time to enable enough breaks between stints at the wheel. Tiredness can come quickly, especially on motorways. As well as the possible damage a van driver could do to the van and how it could tarnish a well-protected van insurance no claims bonus, driving whilst struggling to keep your eyes open could have more severe consequences. Fresh, clean air circulated throughout the cab helps, as does breathing deeply. If this does not work immediately, pull off the road and rest until you feel awake enough to retain focus on the road ahead.

Phil Moss was quick to point out the differences between domestic drivers and those who drive commercial vehicles. For van drivers whose primary function is driving, they can spend inordinate amounts of time behind the wheel, having to concentrate 100% of the time. This can become very draining very quickly, if you’re not used to it or you have had a succession of long shifts of heavy driving. This can often be the reason van drivers get so frustrated and why brokers like Swinton see so very many van insurance claims. It is frustrating for the fleet managers, especially as they know that if the right precautions were taken accidents or incidents could have been avoided. In the case of especially long journeys, even if the job calls for the employment of a cabbie’s mate who could share the driving time it may still work out cheaper for you and your broker than a multiple collision claim.

Road rage is a major factor when it comes to hampering finding cheap van insurance quotes; drivers, managers and organisations throughout should not only recognise this but actively do something about it, saving money into the bargain.

Recent figures released by the DVLA suggest that there are as many as 10,000 drivers operating on UK roads despite going past the upper limit of permissible points before your license is taken away from you.

This could prove a potential worry for employers across the country who have many drivers working for them and have no facility to keep tabs on how each of its registered drivers points record is affecting the overall fleet van insurance policy.

It goes without saying that (most) employers would probably not even consider employing a van driver if their license was close to the maximum license point limit, such as at eight or nine points. Especially with the effect that having points has on your van insurance premium.

According to one insurance questions and answers forum, an individual’s insurance premium can be affected by 5% if they only have the odd one point on their license. However, the more points a driver gets added to his or her license, the more likely an automotive insurance broker will see them as a higher risk.

Therefore, the percentage rise in your van driver’s insurance policy, if he is picking up points since you employed, is not incremental, but exponential. That is to say, if a driver has one point on their license, you can expect your van insurance premium to rise by 5% over the norm (according the aforementioned forum).

For having attracted 4 points, however, the rise in your van insurance quote will not be 4 points x 5% = base policy +20% as you would expect. More likely, according to this one source, your new van insurance estimate is likely to be 50% higher than you would expect to pay for a similar driver with a clean license.

The reason given for the current amount of drivers being allowed to drive is because every case in question has ‘exceptional’ circumstances behind the reasons why the drivers have accrued so many points.

However, the view of four out of five drivers is that there should be no exceptions to the twelve point rule. Not only for the safety of other road users but drivers with such poor histories raise insurance premiums for others. By failing to obtain their own cover due to their accrued points, insurance firms have to pay out on third party claims for uninsured drivers and subsequently pass on those costs to the majority of law-abiding road users who do take out their insurance premiums as legally required.

If you are worried about the rise in your insurance but unsure of how to go about keeping tabs on them without causing offence, new products on the market help organisations link directly to the DVLA so that any rises in van insurance quotes can be pinpointed down to drivers who may be upsetting the apple cart.

If you’re experiencing unforeseen rises in your premiums, see how much you could save on your next fleet van insurance quote, by choosing from over 60 insurance firms using our bespoke online form.